Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (29 page)

Jared grinned without humor. No doubt the guy wondered how they’d slipped out. He’d just have to keep wondering. “Are all the prisoners in the mess halls?”

“Except you. And the people he left on the planet and shipyard.”

“How close are we to the flip point and what are the plans once the ship gets back to Pentagaran space?”

“I think we’re almost there. Maybe another half hour. I don’t know what the plans are. He just said that our arrival would set off a chain of events that would put his patron in control. That’s all I know. I swear.”

Jared reset the pistol to stun, stepped back, and aimed it at the man’s head. He made certain no one was standing behind the man. “Thank you. I commute your sentence to oblivion.” He fired.

The pale blue beam struck the man in the head and he slumped. Stone stepped up and checked his pulse. “He’s alive. Was that the same thing they used on us? Would you really have killed him?”

“Probably and yes.” Everyone had finished gathering weapons and was watching him. “We’re as ready as we’re going to be. Good luck everyone. Try to keep them from knowing we’re coming, but don’t hesitate to shoot if they see you. And remember, I’m as proud of you as I could possibly be. Go.”

They left the prisoner unguarded. Either they’d win and come back for him, or they’d lose and it didn’t matter. The fight would be over before the man woke up.

They returned to the maintenance shafts. He estimated how long it would take them to get into position and they agreed on a time to attack. If someone went early, it might spell doom. Graves led the assault on the bridge, Baxter on engineering, and Jared led the group going to the computer center. Doctor Stone split her people between the three groups. The few scientists with them brought up the rear.

It felt like it took forever to reach the computer center. They had to wait for the rest of the teams to get into position, so he made his way as close as he could and accessed the video feeds. There were three technicians in the computer center and two marines in full combat armor in the corridor. The main hatch was open, but he knew they could close it at a moment’s notice.

The closest maintenance access was thirty meters down the corridor from the computer center. No way could they slip up on the guards unnoticed. He hoped the rifle had the range to take them out.

“Coulter, you might want to take this rifle. I’ve set it to stun.”

“Can I even fire it?”

Jared hadn’t considered that. A quick check showed him that he could lock the weapon down to authorized users by implant ID, but he didn’t have to. “You can fire it.”

His chrono vibrated. It was time. He drew his pistol and waited for the marines to line up behind them. When they were ready, he gave Coulter a nod.

The marine NCO opened the hatch and stepped into the corridor, his rifle already up and firing. The blue bolt just missed the man looking their way. The man shouted and raised his rifle to return fire.

That meant he caught the second bolt in the chest and dropped. Jared prayed and fired at the other man. He missed and the mutineer jumped into the computer center.

The marines were already running for the hatch, so he ran with them. The hatch slid shut almost in their faces.

“Shit!” Coulter hit the admittance switch, but the hatch remained closed.

Jared sent an implant command to the door with his command override. The hatch slid open, much to the shock of the men inside. Jared shot the marine first, and then the tech with the communications unit in his hand. Coulter shot the second tech.

The last technician shot Jared with a pistol. The slug ricocheted off his faceplate. He shot the man more out of reflex than anything else.

Jared’s lead computer technician ran into the room and slid to a stop in front of the main console. He tapped the controls furiously. “Computer offline. Booting. Access channels restored. When it comes up, the computer will have complete systems access.”

Jared hoped that meant the computer would immediately lock down the systems and stun any mutineers, even if the bad guys knocked them all out right now. “How long until it’s up?”

“Less than a minute. I can’t control the anti-boarding weapons. They’re slaved to the bridge.”

He accessed the ship’s systems. He couldn’t isolate them, either, but he could lock them out just like Baxter could in engineering. They accepted his shutdown command authorization and went offline just moments before an order to activate came in from the bridge.

“I locked them out,” he shouted. “We have a chance.”

Jared opened a channel to the Chief Engineer’s appropriated communication unit. “This is Mertz. We have the computer center. Thirty seconds to computer activation and I’ve locked out the anti-boarding weapons. What’s your status?”

“We’re in engineering. We’re exchanging fire with the mutineers. Give me…one second…”

The main overhead lights went out and the emergency backups came on dimly.

“Main power cut,” Baxter said. “Oops. Someone just dumped the flip capacitors. I’m so clumsy. This ship won’t be flipping anywhere until you say so. This won’t stop the computer from coming online.”

“Can you hold?”

“It looks like the mutineers are giving up. We have things under control here.”

The screens around Jared came to life and he felt the computer’s presence through his implants.
Courageous online, Captain. Status?

“Mutineers have the bridge. We think we’ve restored control in engineering. We’re trying to take the bridge. There are other hostiles outside the mess halls. That’s where the crew is. Can you access the anti-boarding weapons?”

The computer switched to audible communication. “The boarding suppression systems have been placed on remote control. This unit sees that you have locked them out. That is all this unit could do until the modifications are removed.”

“Hopefully we won’t need them. Coulter, take your men and hunt down the guards. We’ll lead you to them. I’m locking the computer center hatches until this is over.”

“Aye, sir.” The marines followed him out. Jared closed the armored hatch behind them and locked it. He engaged the manual lock so that no one else could use a surprise code to open it. They’d have to burn him out.

Jared took off his helmet and called Graves. “Status?”

Someone else answered. “Ensign Turner, sir. They repulsed our attack. Commander Graves is hurt bad. The medics are rushing him to the medical center. We’ve called on them to surrender. They refused. We’re about to make another try.”

“Hold for a minute. I’ll try to talk them out.”

He opened a channel to the bridge. For a moment, it didn’t look like they would answer. Then the image of a man bleeding from a cut on his forehead appeared. It was not Rawlins.

“You,” he snarled. “How the hell did you get out of the mess hall?”

The man looked vaguely familiar, but Jared couldn’t put a name to him. “Put Rawlins on. It’s time to end this.”

The man laughed roughly. “You’re going to need better communications gear than even the old Empire had to do that. He’s dead. You’ll deal with me.”

“Fine. We have control of the ship. The main computer is back online and I control engineering. My people are hunting you down in the corridors as we speak. Surrender the bridge.”

The man shook his head. “The King will have our heads, even if you don’t. You want your bridge back? Come and take it.” He grinned without the slightest bit of humor. “Oh, and I have some bad news for you. Rawlins retargeted the asteroid on your precious Princess when he retrieved our men from it. It’s on a ballistic course, so she won’t even see it coming. With the jammers in place, you don’t even have enough time to warn her that death is coming. I’ll see you in Hell.” The transmission ended.

Jared’s heart jumped into his throat as he called the Ensign back. “Take the bridge right now. Medical care for any survivors, but don’t take chances.”

“Aye, sir. Turner out.”

He opened a channel to engineering and started giving orders as soon as Baxter appeared. “Get us headed back to Erorsi Prime at flank speed. Redline the drives. They’re dropping a kinetic strike onto Kelsey and the team.”

The news wiped the smile off Baxter’s face. “I’ll wring every kilometer per second from the drives that I can. Engineering out.”

Jared ran his hand across his face. He hoped the man was lying, but he couldn’t count on it. He had to find a way to get the ship back to Erorsi in time to save his sister. Even if he needed a miracle.

Chapter Thirty-One

It took hours to strip the data units from the flooded battlecruiser and load them aboard the pinnace. Kelsey doubted they would be of much use without the assistance of people who knew the technology. That meant Bell and his associates.

Thankfully, they’d probably be happy to help. Even though her team had failed to capture a functional AI, the Pale Ones converging on the mountain facility had never made it further than the foothills. They’d milled around for a while and then dispersed.

She stood on the shores of the lake and stared at the sky. Had Jared stopped the mutineers? She prayed so, but they wouldn’t know until they made it to the shipyards.

That’s when she noticed a streak of light high up in the atmosphere. No, several streaks. She wondered if they were meteors.

Her implants popped up notice of an incoming transmission. Priority One. That sounded important. She accepted it.

A distorted image of her brother appeared. “Kelsey! The mutineers redirected the asteroid back on your position! You have to get out of there right now! Hurry!” The message began repeating, but that ceased as the streaks above her exploded in little puffs of light.

She whirled toward the pinnace and opened the general marine channel. “Incoming kinetic strike! Everyone into the pinnace right now! Drop everything and run!”

Kelsey brought up the locator beacons for all the marines. Thank God no one was in the water. Most of the men were in or around the pinnace, but a few were inside the transmitter building. Including Talbot.

“Talbot! Move it!”

“I’ve almost got the data unit with the transmission records,” he said. “Thirty seconds. A minute, tops.”

Cursing, she ran past the pinnace and into the building, dodging the other men as they came boiling out. Talbot had a data unit partly extracted from the computer. She grabbed it with one hand and ripped it out. She snatched him up with the other and bolted.

Her enhanced musculature and powered armor got them both outside in a hurry. She triggered the grav assist and leapt for the pinnace. Her armor took them almost twenty meters into the air and dropped them right behind the last of the men running up the ramp.

“Lift off!” Reese shouted as he raised the ramp behind them. “Maximum acceleration. Head for the mountains.”

Kelsey glared at Talbot. “Now who’s making someone crazy? Have you lost your mind?” She shook the data unit at him. “This isn’t worth your life.”

“Actually, it might be. This isn’t just a log of messages. It’s recordings of the content, too. I only had time to scan a few messages, but I think these are critically important. But, thanks for the lift.”

“Everyone into your seats and activate the crash harnesses.” Reese shoved the data unit into a storage compartment. “Since we don’t have to go stealth, we’ll be over the mountains in fifteen minutes. How far off is the strike?”

Kelsey shook her head. “I don’t know. The recording didn’t say.”

“Well, we’ll just have to hope we have time.”

That’s when she picked up something high above them through the pinnace’s scanners. It was closing in at an incredible rate of speed. “Here it comes! Impact on the lake in just a few seconds!”

“Get us on the deck,” Reese yelled at the pilots as he strapped himself in. “Find some cover.”

The streak in the sky descended with deceptive slowness, almost crawling toward the ground as the pinnace dove for cover. They almost made it to a ridgeline ahead of them before the sky behind them lit up with intolerable brightness.

“How long does it take a shockwave to—”

A giant hand smashed the pinnace from the sky. It tumbled like a toy hurled by an angry child. The pilots jammed on the grav drives at the last moment and flipped them upright just before they plowed into the forest.

Kelsey must’ve lost consciousness because the pinnace was a smoldering wreck when she woke up.

Her restraints resisted her attempts to free herself, so she ripped them off. A few marines staggered around, but most hung limply from their crash harnesses. Her armor pinged their suits. Some of them were dead, but most were alive, if in bad shape.

The fact that any of them had lived through the crash was a testament to the engineers who’d designed the pinnace and its safety system.

Then she remembered the pilots. She couldn’t sense their condition. She forced her way onto the flight deck and discovered it had taken the worst of the impact. The pinnace had dug a furrow like a plow, knocking aside trees and rocks as it gouged the ground.

One of the pilots hung from her harness, staring numbly at the stump of her right arm. The other pilot was missing, a jagged hole in the fuselage where he’d sat. The forest outside burned.

Kelsey ripped some wiring from the shattered control consoles and tied a tourniquet on the woman’s arm just as Talbot heaved himself onto the flight deck. She was relieved to see him. She was almost as relived to see the medic behind him.

She stepped back beside Talbot and watched the medic treat the injured pilot. “I didn’t think we were going to make it. I thought we were going to die.”

“Me, too. I can’t imagine how they got us down in one piece.”

That’s when the shakes hit her. They hit her so hard that her teeth chattered.

Talbot pulled her into a hug. “It’s going to be okay. Just let it go.”

And she did, the tears came pouring from her. Tears of relief, tears of grief, and tears of terror.

* * * * *

They were still bringing the injured out of the crashed pinnace when another pinnace howled in from above like a roaring beast of prey. It had barely touched the ground before it disgorged marines who rushed in to help with the rescue operations. A second pinnace landed right behind it with Doctor Stone and her medical teams.